Health Boards
This article suggests there is a link between ultraprocessed foods and psoriasis.
Source: jamanetwork.com
*Funding: French Society of Dermatology. | Ministère de la Santé, Santé Publique France | Université Sorbonne Paris Nord.
Quote:
Methods:
We performed a cross-sectional study using data from the Nutri-Net-Santé cohort study between November 29, 2021, and June 6, 2022. The French Institute for Health and Medical Research Institutional Review Board approved this study. All participants provided electronic informed consent. We followed the STROBE reporting guideline.
A validated self-diagnosis questionnaire was used to classify participants (aged ≥15 years) by their psoriasis status (never-had, nonactive, or active) at the time of the survey. For each participant, UPF intake in grams per day was extracted and divided into 3 tertiles, ranging from minimum (tertile 1) to maximum (tertile 3) intake. Associations were assessed using multinomial logistic regression models adjusted for age, sex, educational level, smoking status, physical activity, body mass index (BMI; calculated as weight in kilograms divided by height in meters squared), alcohol intake, and comorbidities (depression, cancer, cardiovascular disease [CVD], diabetes, hypertriglyceridemia, inflammatory bowel disease [IBD], inflammatory rheumatism), and number of dietary records completed.
Two-sided P < .05 indicated statistical significance. Data analysis was performed with SAS, version 9.4 (SAS Institute Inc).
Results:
A total of 18 528 participants (median [IQR] age, 62 [49-70] years; 13 755 females [74%], 4773 males [26%]) were included, of whom 1825 (10%) had psoriasis with 803 cases being active (4%). The active psoriasis group had a lower proportion of females (68% [546] vs 74% [12 441] and 75% [768]) and a higher proportion of individuals with BMI over 30 (16% [129] vs 9% [1524] and 11% [115]) than the never-had and nonactive groups. High-intensity physical activity was less frequent in the active and nonactive groups than in the never-had group (308 [38%] and 396 [39%] vs 6943 [42%]). Comorbidities that were more frequent in the active vs never-had group were CVD (58 [7%] vs 773 [5%]), diabetes (45 [6%] vs 623 [4%]), IBD (13 [2%] vs 151 [1%]), and inflammatory rheumatism (69 [9%] vs 455 [3%]).
In unadjusted analysis, UPF intake differed between active and never-had groups (tertile 3 odds ratio [OR], 1.52; 95% CI, 1.28-1.81; P for trend < .001). After adjustments, high UPF intake was more likely in the active group than lower UPF intake (tertile 3 adjusted OR, 1.36; 95% CI, 1.14-1.63). Sensitivity analyses showed no association for participants with a psoriasis diagnosis validated by a dermatologist.
Discussion:
Results of this study showed an association between high UPF intake and active psoriasis status. After adjustments for age, BMI, alcohol intake, and comorbidities, the results remained significant, suggesting that UPF intake has a proinflammatory action separate from high BMI.4
Study limitations included the study population differing from the French general population (notably with healthier dietary habits5), which might have led to an underestimation of association levels detected. Additionally, psoriasis cases were self-reported, possibly leading to misclassification. However, self-declaration of psoriasis had excellent sensitivity (82.2%) and specificity (98.6%) and receiver operating characteristic curve (0.90; 95% CI, 0.87-0.94) in a cross-sectional diagnostic study of 89 patients with psoriasis.6 Our models also were adjusted for known and potential confounding factors, minimizing confounding bias. However, residual bias could persist. Furthermore, the cross-sectional, observational study design prevented us from ascertaining whether elevated UPF intake precedes or is a consequence of psoriasis flare-ups.
High UPF intake was associated with active psoriasis status. More large-scale studies are needed to investigate the role of UPF intake in psoriasis onset.
Source: jamanetwork.com
*Funding: French Society of Dermatology. | Ministère de la Santé, Santé Publique France | Université Sorbonne Paris Nord.
